People Without Nation

We urge you: please use every mechanism at your disposal to highlight Saeed Malekpour’s case and condition, especially since he has been unjustly sentenced to death. Canadian government officials can do more to help foreign nationals detained abroad. Please ask our government for their help in bringing Saeed Malekpour back to his rightful life in Canada. Below, there is a template letter that you can send it to your local MP or to suggestions at this mailing list.

Your Excellency,

I write to you out of deep concern for Saeed Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada who was detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) in October 2008 for “internet offenses.” He was sentenced to death in December 2010 without having had regular access to a lawyer, resources to defend himself, or legitimate due process. Canada’s Spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs has noted that the case “appears to be another case in which someone in Iran is facing a death sentence after a highly questionable process.”

The IRI is averaging one execution every eight hours, and in light of the recent execution of Dutch-Iranian protestor, Zahra Bahrami, it is imperative that Canada takes to the world stage and urges the safety and release of its own residents detained in Iran. I urge you and your colleagues to state your concern publicly as a means to pressure the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to treat Mr. Malekpour, and all other prisoners, in accordance with the norms set forth by international human rights standards.

The 35-year-old and his wife moved to Canada in 2004, where he began work as a freelance website developer & programmer. During this time, Mr. Malekpour designed a program that would allow his clients to upload pictures, and, as is a common courtesy in coding, included his name and information in the file. The program was later used as part of an adult content website WITHOUT Mr. Malekpour’s consent or knowledge. Because his was the only recognizable name associated with the program, Mr. Malekpour was arrested in October 2008 after returning to Iran to see his terminally ill father, for the false allegation of “developing an adult website.”

Mr. Malekpour’s initial baseless and politically motivated charges include “agitation against the regime”; “contact with foreign entities”; and “insulting the sanctity of Islam”. In March 2010, he wrote an open letter that detailed how his confessions were extracted under immense pressure, torture, threats, and false promises of release, leniency, and bail. In response to the open letter, the IRI returned Mr. Malekpour to solitary confinement and, as retribution, tacked on the additional baseless charge: “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”

As the case is full of technical terms and nuances, there is little knowledge or understanding of the “evidence.” Mr. Malekpour has continually been denied access to the resources he needs to disprove the accusations, while his requests for the IRI’s judiciary-trusted IT experts to investigate the case file have gone unheard.

On January 22, 2011, Mr. Malekpour was taken to Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, where he faced a second round of politically motivated charges, including “collusion with his wife to act against national security”; “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran;” and “agitating the public mind”. Because neither his family nor his lawyer was informed of the recent trial, Mr. Malekpour had no legal representation. He ultimately refused to defend himself during the trial, instead insisting that his lawyer be present. He has been unable to work with his lawyer due to his prolonged solitary confinement in Ward 2-A of Evin prison.

The IRI continues to violate the rights standards set forth by Articles 10, 11, and 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the “Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners” as detailed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

To this end, I urge you: please use every mechanism at your disposal to save Saeed Malekpour. Please, work with the international community to urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to institute an immediate moratorium on all execution sentences and to conduct independent reviews of all pending death penalty cases, including Mr. Malekpour’s. I plead that you urge the IRI to afford Mr. Malekpour his due rights, a fair trial, access to independent legal representation, medical care, freedom from physical and psychological torture, and most importantly, a halt to his execution.

As one of the most compassionate world bodies today, Canada can set a significant precedence and lead the international community to respond to the human-rights crisis engulfing the people of Iran – especially in stepping forward and showing support for one of its own. By expressing concern loudly, the IRI will realize that continued abuses will lead to an insufferable level of disruption in their international relations.

Canada can, and should, rise to the challenge now faced by the international community and lead the charge in drawing attention to Saeed’s case, the abuses he has endured, the false confessions, the torture, the threats, and his execution. Canada remains a country that has been courageous in holding the IRI accountable for its human rights abuses I hope that the Canadian leadership can take concrete action on behalf of Saeed Malekpour, an innocent man who relocated his life and family to the great country of Canada.

Please work towards Mr. Malekpour’s safe release and bring your country’s permanent resident back home to Canada, his wife, and his family.

Thank you for listening to my concerns. I look forward to your response.

This is sad indeed! Pasdaran Revolutionary Guard, a terrorist gang of armed hooligans, is using an innocent, accomplished and genius Iranian as a disposable tool to increase their own budget so that they could spy on and better monitor the WEB and arrest and murder more innocent Iranians later. This is a duty for all civil societies and their lawmakers to come to the defense of Saeed and strongly condemn Iranian regime for its barbaric treatment of this young man and demand his immediate release.

Release Saeed Malekpour from the hell of mullahs regime.
Free all the Iranian Political prisoners.
Free Iran for ever.
Down with mullahs regime of Iran & all their world supporters.
Don’t be Silent.
Human Right, Human being is the answer.
Together we are strong*

These will go down with Hitler as some of the very worst of historical monstrosities. How can anyone claim to align himself with God and inflict the most terrible suffering imaginable upon his own brethren? I hope there is a hell for these mullahs. Please free this prisoner.

I’m Speechless. My only question to the Iranian Government would be;
Do you believe in Islam? God, and Holy Book of Quran? if you answer yes, then:
If you preach Islam, if you think and believe you are Muslims and follow the Path of Holy Prophet of Islam and Imam Ali (AS) then You know what you are doing in this case or allowing is not RIGHT by NO GOD, Prophet, IMAM or any religious morals, ethics or codes.
You talk of freedom, and higher education, freedoms and appreciate youth with professional education, yet you allow yourself to arrest innocent people without any hard evidence or facts, or any crimes committed {no matter what religion or ideology they follow} ( which in Islam all religions are to be respected) torture them ( which in Islam is forbidden and in Quran condemned)
so please if You even have no religion at least respect and appreciate the human rights and respect other’s rights of enjoying their freedom. A right which every living being is born with. A Mercy from the Lord Almighty. So how can you talk of Islam when your actions contradict your words. and your words contradict your actions? is not that what we all fight, the Monafegoon? the double standards?
You can not preach as a Shia of Ahlel Bait and act like bani Omayyad and Abbasid dynasty!!!
My word to the leaders in Iran is do as you preach from Quran. Quran condemns arrest and torture of people such as Mr. Saeed Malekpoor. Let us Muslims in other parts of this world be proud of our religion and faith, do not make us cover our faces when others talk of Islam and Iran.

Free Saeed Malekpou!!
He is an honourable man who risked his life to visit his dying father. His execution will only foster anti-government feeling! His release will promote social peace and good will towards the Iranian government.

I attach a copy of a letter I sent to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and copied to my Government, in case any of the sentences are useful to others looking to write their own letters.

Mr. Navy Pillay
UN High Commissioner for Human rights

Dear Mr. Pillay,

I am a Canadian Citizen, I write to respectfully add my voice, and on behalf of my family, to the urgent request that your office use all the tools available use all of its abilities to intervene with the appropriate authorities In Iran to prevent the execution of Canadian-Iranian citizen Saeed Malekpour.

It is our understanding from multiple and credible reports available to the pubic that Mr. Malekpour was sentenced to death for activities he did not do, and using evidence obtained under torture and other forms of duress.

Essentially this is an arbitrary and irreversible act of injustice that appears to be imminently.

Being aware that there are different views even within the government of Iran on matters of justice, we have seen that sometimes the Iranian government does respond positively to international expressions of the moral and legal need to review what are unjust decisions.

All countries including my own have unintentionally jailed people who were latter proven innocent . We do not seek to target the Iranian government by adding our voice to the protest of torture and wrongful convictions.

Among the community of nations, we must help each other to find justice that is not arbitrary, and implore your office to do all it can to prevent the execution and of Mr. Malekpour.

Thank you to altunivurz for the example. The full mailing address would be of great help. Just commenting on this stream will not help. We must put our voices out in the hands where it will be seen by the people that can intervene on Saeed’s behalf. I will research the address. If I find it I will come back and post it for others. Prayers going up in the mean time.

The good Lord will prevail over all.
Adding my voice to the release of Saeed,
That government should release him and
nurture his talent, then – within their justice system
they should employ someone tech-savvy or
to the minimum IT-knowledgeable to bring them
to a modern understanding of how misplaced their
accusations or charges are.

If one manufactures and sell a kitchen knife and a retailed
buyer use it to slay someone, will the IRI government
have a case against such ???

The courts should act justly and release him !
This acts are soo distasteful to a modern society…